A character with Low Vision - Like ME! Scoop...the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It’s great to be back after a long hiatus from Filmed in Foney Glasses. We are working on our brand new, first fiction podcast, the first one we’re putting out, a comedy series titled, The Bleachers. The Bleachers takes place in small town Georgia. It’s an entire comedy series coming out in mid June.

In this episode of Filmed in Foney Glasses, I watched Blind Malice, a 2014 film, written and directed by Graham Streeter. Our vision impaired character’s name is Karen, played by Angelina Prendergrast.

The first thing I want to say about this film is that it’s a love/hate. The love is because Graham Streeter wrote about a vision impaired character. Those of us who have low vision or vision impairments, we’re always excluded. I mean, blind people are, too, but THIS is a vision impaired character, so I’m totally on board and excited at the beginning – as long as they know how to stick with vision impaired and not blind – there’s a huge difference.

I’ll go ahead and say, as I’ll say throughout, Angelina Prendergrast, Thank You. You represented us well. The times that you used your cane, zero complaints. It was all perfect. Everything you did was perfect. I don’t know how you are as an actress in other things, but portraying someone with low vision, fuckin’ high five to you, girl.

The movie was about a teenage girl and her grandma who go to one of their rental properties way out in the middle of nowhere in this wooded area and they are gonna clean it up after some renters left. They have to stay overnight. There is a strange man lurking about who says he’s off the grid. Let’s just mention he had a Swedish accent – “hejsan Svejsan, Ted!”. You’re not sure if he’s a bad guy or not at first. You’re kind of suspicious, but you think, well, maybe he’s not gonna be the killer. So we see him somewhat early on. The grandmother is great. I didn’t catch her name, but she’s one of those people you’ve seen in a lot of movies. Great job. Her character did not overcompensate for the fact that her granddaughter was vision impaired. She didn’t do anything special for her. That was beautiful. Thank you.

Early on in the movie I was like, “Graham Streeter, can we make love?”, because I am just so impressed and so happy that it’s a vision impaired teenager and I can pretty much relate to this girl because she was living in my world – minus the scary situation. I love the fact that you have a disabled person smoking a joint. Yes, we drink, we get high, we can rob people, we can do whatever other people do that’s considered bad, but you never see that in film and television. You know, people think that we don’t have sex or do any of these other things that fully abled people do. So…she gets high, puts in her earbuds and it’s a normal life. So there was this heavy masturbation scene with the girl in the bathtub. You know, as a female, straight, lesbian, bi, whoever, we didn’t need that. Isn’t this just a horror flick? Come on. That was for the writer’s thrill. So while she is masturbating in the bathtub, the grandma goes outside with the dog to smoke a cigarette. We don’t really see what happens to the grandma. We just know that her water bottle is half empty and put back on the table. So when the girl gets out of the tub, she senses someone might be in the house. She goes outside to look for grandma and doesn’t have her cane with her, but she feels with her feet, which is BRILLIANT. Real live stuff. That’s what we do. Thank you, Graham Streeter.

So, she can’t find grandma outside. She’s a little worried, and then she assumes grandma and the dog went to the store for cigarettes. Ted shows up again asking for hot water. She is hesistant, but invites him in. He takes a hot shower. I keep hoping she will ask him to look for her grandma, but she doesn’t. She heats up leftover fried chicken for Ted and they start making out. Guess it was the chicken. She recalls being molested as a child, and pushes him away. Ted, however, becomes rapey and aggressive. A struggle breaks out.

Cut to the chase:

The good - very realistic as far as acting, writing, directing of a vision impaired character.

The bad and the ugly - Writer had a fascination with watching blind teenage girls get raped. Long detailed scene of Ted raping her and constant flashbacks of her as a little girl getting raped. Sick MoFo who wrote this.

I turned it off pretty close to the end, during the eternal rape. Who knows if grandma and doggie are still alive.

Judging solely on the writing, directing, and performance for Filmed in Foney Glasses, I give it a COOL!

Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, is it cool or is it cruel?

I watched Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network. Season 2, Episode 4 titled: Sight for Sore Eyes.

So, this was a cute little cartoon. I guess it was geared for little kids – but I really enjoyed it.

So, there was a Seeing Eye Monster. It was this thing with a whole bunch of eyeballs on top of his head, and he lost his blind friend, named Stevie. So, this little ghost, named Bloo, who looked like the Pacman ghost, and a little boy were gonna help the Seeing Eye Monster look for Stevie. And it was really cute because the boy and Bloo were running thru the little city looking for Stevie and there is a kid sitting on some steps outside of a building with earbuds and black sunglasses. Bloo, the ghost, assumes this kid is Stevie because of the sunglasses, I suppose. Bloo chases him all thru the town and once he tackles him, they’re like, “wait a minute, he’s not blind, he can see you”. False Identity. And so, it turns out it was just a boy in sunglasses.

So, they do their detective work and they start questioning Seeing Eye Monster with, “where did you last see him? What was he wearing? What does he look like?”. The Seeing Eye Monster gives a description that he was going to the park, he was wearing ‘this’ colored shirt, and he was wearing a pointy hat. They get to the park and there are lots of little boys in pointy hats. Bloo, the silly ghost, assumes one or all of them might be Stevie, so he runs after one, and it scare everybody when they see the ghost, so they all start screaming and running and there’s chaos, and a food fight breaks out. The cake goes into everyone’s eyes and no one can see. EXCEPT good ol Stevie has his white cane, his best buddy. He feels his way around and he finds the Seeing Eye Monster and lets him know that he’s okay.

Let me just tell you that Stevie is an adorable freakin’ kid! I LOVE his little, tiny, white cane. He did it so well. It was just adorable. I want a picture of Stevie to put on my desk. Or even if I had one of those little bobble heads of Stevie – no I don’t like bobble heads – maybe more like a little figurine. Cause he was that freakin’ cute! Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, if you have little figurines, I would love one of Stevie. Please?

So, as they’re all walking back, everything gets all cleared up and the other kids meet Stevie and explain the chaos of what happened with Seeing Eye Monster and how it was his fault. All his misunderstanding. You know, the show’s style was a wee bit fun and a wee bit annoying-for me. It would be more geared for a young kid. BUT, Stevie’s character was very real and he was very cute and I give this a WAY COOL. COOL and adorable. <KISS> I loved it.